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Kappa Sigma
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History

Kappa Sigma was founded in America on December 10, 1869 by five students (George Miles Arnold, John Covert Boyd, William Grigsby McCormick, Frank Courtney Nicodemus, and Edmund Law Rogers Jr.) attending the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The five founders, called "The Five Friends and Brothers," gathered in McCormick's room at 46 East Lawn and laid the foundations for the fraternity. From this first meeting, Kappa Sigma was given a Constitution and an Oath from which are taken the principles and ideals of all Kappa Sigmas. Kappa Sigma was the first "Southern" fraternity to establish a chapter in the North, at Lake Forest College, Illinois. It's sister sorority is Chi Omega whos founders included an initiate of Kappa Sigma, Dr. Charles Richardson.
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Legend

Kappa Sigma's legendary founding draws on historical events that occurred in the city of Bologna, Italy, in 1400 A.D. Manuel Chrysoloras, a Greek emissary teaching at the University of Bologna, formed with some of his students a society to protect one another against the unscrupulous governor of the city, a former pirate named Baldassarre Cossa. Cossa was infamous for sending robbers to attack and steal from foreigners — in this case, non-city residents. These students bore weapons for protection and devised secret signs, words, and forms to protect their ranks from infiltration. Cossa, after leaving Bologna, later usurped the Papacy as an antipope under the name John XXIII.
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Philosophy

Kappa Sigma's ideals are centered around its four cornerstones: fellowship, leadership, scholarship, and service.
Kappa Sigmas are taught to live their lives by the Star and Crescent, which are the symbols of the Fraternity that make up the official badge:

"The Star and Crescent shall not be worn by every man, but only by him who is worthy to wear it. He must be a gentleman...a man of honor and courage...a man of zeal, yet humble...an intelligent man...a man of truth...one who tempers action with wisdom and, above all else, one who walks in the light of God."
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Recent history

The fraternity is currently building a new headquarters after losing the title to a Charlottesville, VA mansion known as the International Memorial Headquarters in a long-running court battle. In 2002, along with Phi Sigma Kappa and Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Sigma dropped its long-time membership in the North-American Interfraternity Conference because of philosophical differences.

About Beta Theta Pi
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Among the top 20% of college fraternities in size, Beta Theta Pi was the first to be founded west of the Allegheny Mountains and the first to locate a chapter west of the Mississippi River.

At 9:00pm on August 8 in 1839, eight young men from the university held the first meeting of Beta Theta Pi in the Hall of the Union Literary Society, an upper room in the old college building, known as "Old Main." The eight founders, designated "of ever honored memory" in Beta Theta Pi tradition, were:

* John Reily Knox 1839
* Samuel Taylor Marshall 1840
* David Linton 1839
* James George Smith 1840
* Charles Henry Hardin 1841
* John Holt Duncan 1840
* Michael Clarkson Ryan 1839
* Thomas Boston Gordon 1840

In the year Beta Theta Pi was founded, the college fraternity world consisted of only 19 chapters of five secret Greek-letter fraternities, located on 10 college campuses in five states. In addition, the Mystic Seven Society had been organized in 1837 at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and Delta Upsilon had been founded at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., as a protest against secret societies.

There were only 135 students at Miami University in 1839 (all male), and six professors. Tuition cost only $24 per year and the academic year lasted from early October until early August with breaks for Christmas and Easter. There were only three main buildings, Elliott and Stoddard halls serving as dormitories and one main academic building known as Old Main.

Students at Miami often had made a large commitment going off to college, perhaps leaving a farm short handed back home. Academics were a pursuit not to be taken lightly. This is demonstrated by the most important extracurricular activities being membership in the Erodelphian and Union Literary Societies. Each had accrued substantial libraries since their formation in 1825. Students gathered on Friday afternoons in the society halls on the third floor of Old Main where they read and criticized essays, debated, and developed skills in extemporaneous speaking. Each sought to provide its members mutual improvement, the cultivation of fellowship, and the promotion of standards of conduct. Most students were members of these societies. Knox was elected President of the Union Lit in June 1839 while Linton served as Treasurer of the Erodelphians for a year.

For some of the students something was missing. During the winter and spring of 1839 the Founders began planning something different. It was in this time that Knox and Marshall, rooming in the west wing of Old Main with Harding and Smith, jointly conceived and worked together to create Beta Theta Pi. On August 8th eight young men crept up to the third floor of Old Main and entered the Hall of the Union Literary Society of which Knox was the president. Five of them were only 19 and four of them just barely so. Knox, Linton, and Ryan were about to graduate so Duncan was elected the first president and Smith as Secretary.

When the five remaining Founders returned to Miami in October they began to recruit new brothers. At their first meeting they elected Smith's cousin, Henry Hunter Johnson, and in February added John Whitney, Alexander Paddack, and A. W. Hamilton, two of whom would soon play important roles in founding the Cincinnati Chapter. And so the Founding of Beta Theta Pi was complete.

About Delta Sigma Phi
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As the door closed on the final moments of the nineteenth century, a handful of undergraduate men began meeting between classes at City College of New York. Some had known one another before they graduated from the New York public school system, and they had wanted to continue their friendships at City College. The obvious solution was to join a fraternity, but there was just one problem: This was no ordinary group of undergraduates. They were an affiliation of Jews and Christians; and, at the time, entry to all-Jewish and all-Christian fraternities was barred to individuals and groups that mixed religions.

Delta Sigma Phi was incorporated in New York City on December 2, 1902. Five members of Insula signed the incorporation papers, with the stated objectives of dissemination "the principles of friendship and brotherhood among college men, without respect to race or creed." The early organizers, including Meyer Boskey (Insula), also drafted Delta Sigma Phi's laws, requiring open membership to all college men of quality. The purpose of the Fraternity, written the same year, was "to fulfill the desire of serious young college men for a fellowship and brotherhood, as near a practical working ideal as possible not fettered with too many traditional prejudices and artificial standards of membership, and accompanied by a clean, pure, and honorable chapter home life."

Although such principles later would invite problems, the basic concept of the Fraternity-embracing brotherhood and congeniality without regard to religion race-not only attracted other idealists as City College of New York, it set the stage for expansion onto other campuses.

About Delta Chi
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Delta Chi (ΔΧ) (del-ta Kai) is an international fraternity formed on October 13, 1890 at Cornell University as a fraternity for law students. In fact, the open motto of the Fraternity remains Leges, the Latin word for law. In 1922 the Fraternity officially started accepting general male student membership. Delta Chi abolished "hell week" in 1929, becoming the first American fraternity to do so. The Fraternity is headquartered at 314 Church Street in Iowa City, Iowa. The values and ideals of the Order can be summed up in the preamble to its Constitution: "We, the members of The Delta Chi Fraternity, believing that great advantages are to be derived from a brotherhood of college and university men, appreciating that close association may promote friendship, develop character, advance justice, and assist in the acquisition of a sound education, do ordain and establish this Constitution."

The spiritual founder of the fraternity is Sir Edward Coke. His idealism is best exemplified with one of his most famous quotes: "No man is above the law, not even the king." This and many other of Coke's theories of law and justice are those that Delta Chi strives to emulate.

There are now over 120 chapters and colonies of Delta Chi across North America. The Fraternity counts among its members many accomplished men including current (2004) US Senators Larry Craig, Richard Shelby and Craig Thomas; present US Representative John Mica; former US President Benjamin Harrison; former US Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson;former FBI chief William S. Sessions; former general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners Pat Gillick; actors Kevin Costner, G. D. Spradlin, Joey Stinson, and Ashton Kutcher.

About Sigma Pi
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Sigma Pi Fraternity (ΣΠ) is an international college fraternity for men with chapters in the United States and Canada. Founded on February 26, 1897 at Vincennes University by William Raper Kennedy, James Thompson Kingsbury, George Martin Patterson, and Rolin Rosco James, it started as Tau Phi Delta (ΤΦΔ), a literary society with fraternal ideals. The fraternity was the first of its kind to be founded west of the Ohio Valley and a founding member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference in 1909. Among many things, Sigma Pi promotes fellowship, scholarship, chivalry, and character by organizing social, academic, and philanthropy events for its members and the communities in which its chapters are located. Today, Sigma Pi consists of over 130 active chapters, colonies, and alumni clubs and over 85,000 initiates. In addition, a separate, but related entity, the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation, manages approximately 2.3 million dollars in trust assets for the educational benefit of fraternity members. The fraternity is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.

About Theta Chi
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Theta Chi Fraternity was founded on Thursday, April 10, 1856 at 9:00 p.m. in the Old South Barracks on the campus of Norwich University in Norwich, Vermont, by two military cadets, Frederick Norton Freeman and Arthur Chase. A third man, Egbert Phelps, is considered to be the "assistant founder" for lending his help and advice to Freeman and Chase although he was never an undergraduate member himself (he was a member of the Chi Psi Fraternity). The first initiates were Edward Bancroft Williston, Lorenzo Potter and Frederick Howard Farrar. The early history of Theta Chi Fraternity is closely connected with the history of Norwich University. In 1866 a massive fire devastated the university, completely destroying the Old South Barracks. This disaster prompted the university to move from Norwich, Vermont to its present location in Northfield, Vermont. During fall quarter in 1881, Norwich University was reduced to only 15 students and Theta Chi membership was reduced to one undergraduate member, James M. Holland. In November of that year, Phil S. Randall and Henry Hersey approached Holland and insisted that they be allowed to join Theta Chi; Holland agreed, thus saving the fraternity from extinction.
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Growth

The fraternity was incorporated in Vermont in 1888, and acquired its first chapter house two years later. However, it remained a single entity for forty-six years until the Beta Chapter was installed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1902. A Grand Chapter was organized in 1908 to direct the fraternity and promote its growth. In 1942, Beta Kappa Fraternity joined Theta Chi Fraternity, bringing 16 undergraduate chapters and approximately 6,000 undergraduate and alumnus members into the ranks. The Foundation Chapter was established in 1953 as a charity to provide educational scholarships and assistance. In 1965, the Zeta Gamma Chapter was installed at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, making Theta Chi an International Fraternity.
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Ideals and traditions

Membership is open to men of good character without regard to race, religion, nationality, or creed. New members are expected to conduct themselves like gentlemen at all times, as well as be leaders and a positive force both on their campuses and in their communities. The Greek motto of Theta Chi is Theroposa Cheir, "An Assisting Hand." The fraternity's maxim is "Alma Mater First and Theta Chi for Alma Mater." The fraternity's colors are military red and white. Its flower is the red carnation. The national alumni publication is The Rattle, named for the rattlesnake that appears on the fraternity's coat of arms and badge. It has become a Theta Chi tradition to celebrate Founders Day on April 10, usually as an alumni gathering.
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Creed of Theta Chi

"I believe in Theta Chi, its traditions and its ideals. Born of sturdy manhood, nurtured by resolute men, ennobled by high and sacred purpose, it has taken its place among the educational institutions of America as a promoter of knowledge, an advancer of culture, and a builder of character.

"It inspires true friendship; teaches Truth, Temperance, and Tolerance; extols virtue, exacts harmony, and extends a helping hand to all who seek it.

"I believe in the primacy of Alma Mater: in the usefulness of my Fraternity, in its influence and its accomplishments and I shall do all in my power to perpetuate its ideals, thereby serving my God, my country and my fellow man."
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Theta Chi today

Theta Chi Fraternity currently has over 130 active chapters and colonies across the United States and Canada and has initiated over 161,000 members since its founding. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference. As of May 2000, Theta Chi was the 11th largest collegiate male fraternity. Hazing has been prohibited since 1920, and in 1998 the fraternity mandated that nearly all undergraduate chapter houses be alcohol-free by 2003.

The fraternity's International Headquarters is currently located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In June of 2006, Theta Chi's 150th Anniversary Convention was held at the Norwich University campus in Northfield, Vermont.

Fraternities at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh exist by the consent and support of the University Administration and the Oshkosh Student Association. Recognizing that close interfraternity, University and community relationships are essential in promoting and perpetuating the ideals of fraternity life, we hereby establish for that purpose the Interfraternity Council at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, WI 54901

Last Update : February 22, 2007